Search - Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West

The writing in this book is very strong, but the story is hard to stomach. The book depicts all the worst things about humanity through the eyes of a young man who has joined in a band of mercenaries working north and south of the Mexico-Texas border. The end of the book feels meaningless, and I think it was meant to feel that way. I'm not a philosopher, but this book feels nihilistic and empty. Beautiful writing, ugly vision.

This author has a unique writing style that takes a little getting used to. But the book is engrossing and enlightening for those who grew up on tv westerns. This is much more on the dark side of those westerns. It will keep you wondering til the end the outcome of their saga across the southwestern US in 1849. Very, very, good. I can't wait to read more of this author!!

This book is brilliant. It may be the best written book I've ever read, both stylistically and in the clarity of its vision. But that may keep it from being a good book. Cormac McCarty believes, at least as he comes across in these pages, that violence trumps everything else. It is a deeply disturbing vision, one to which I cannot assign the adjective 'good.'

One of the best books ever written. Drenched in blood and despair, McCarthy takes the topic of the old west and head-scalping to gripping new levels. The punctuation and archaic way of writing may be confusing and/or frustrating, but give it a little bit and be patient with it. The book is well worth it.

I did not care for this book. I had read No Country for Old Men and All the Pretty Horses and loved both of them. This one did not have much of a story in my opinion and was full of blood, gore and massacres. Even the main character did not have much of a place in the story. Maybe it was me,and not ready for this book. Others may really enjoy it.

I cannot read this book. I read one and a half chapters and gave up.

A while back I read - and thoroughly disliked - The Road, another work by McCarthy. It was, however, the only thing by him I had read, and I thought I would give him another try.

Mistake. Big mistake.

This book is just about as unreadable as The Road. The prose is deliberately stilted, and convention - like quotes around dialog and apostrophes in contractions - is ignored.

In a nutshell, it's junk. I couldn't comfortably follow it, and was disinterested in it - and the characters involved - nearly immediately.

The only reason I am not giving it the worst possible rating is because I didn't finish it, and I cannot in good conscious do that to something I didn't fully read. That said, I did flip around after giving up, and no, it clearly gets no better. The complaints above apply from page one right through the end.

I won't be reading any more McCarthy. Not my thing.